Dissociative Identity Disorder

As a queer person in a dissociative identity disorder (DID) system, they highlight the challenges of navigating the diverse identities within their collective psyche. Mentioning that people in these systems are gender-neutral due to the presence of multiple identities, they emphasized the importance of understanding and accepting the diverse identities within a DID system.

This episode was made possible thanks to our partnership with the Missing Voices Project. Based out of Flagler College, the Missing Voices Project believes that amplifying the voices of young people and their adult allies who live and serve in ministry at the intersections of disability, foster care & trauma, gender & sexuality, and racial reconciliation is necessary and holy work. We are grateful to Missing Voices Project for their support and for the bravery of these campers as they share about life at the intersection of queerness and disability. For more information about the Missing Voices Project, please visit www.missingvoices.org

Find out more about us by visiting our website, kindomcommunity.org. There you can find information about kin•dom camp and consider supporting our work with a one-time or recurring donation. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram @kindomcommunity to keep up with all the important information. 

Transcript

music  0:00  
[Andy strumming guitar & Baylee's voice singing: "Oh let's build, let's build a place we can go”]

Narrator  0:09  
Thank you for tuning into kin•dom campfire chats, a podcast of kin•dom community. This podcast features the voices of LGBTQIA+ persons, both youth participants and adult staff, who attended kin•dom camp in Texas in the summer of 2024. We asked the camp participants to think of a question that they wished someone would ask them about their life journey. With a friend, and in their own words, the campers tell their stories of struggle, love, support, and a community found. We invite you to listen with an open mind and an open heart.

This episode was made possible thanks to our partnership with the Missing Voices Project who believes that amplifying the voices of young people and their adult allies who live and serve in ministry at the intersections of disability, foster care & trauma, gender & sexuality, and racial reconciliation is necessary and holy work. We are grateful for the bravery of these campers as they share about life at the intersection of queerness and disability.

speaker 1  1:28  
What is it like living as a queer, dissociative identity disorder system?

speaker 2  1:34  
It's pronounced Dissociative Identity Disorder system, but it's interesting. First of all, I'm going to get a give a quick explanation of dissociative identity disorder. It used to be known as multiple personality disorder, but it's not that's not the proper term for it, nor do most of the people in the dissociative disorders community like that term. It's not usually a term that's commonly used. But it's interesting, because as a queer dissociative identity disorder system, like we, we all have different queer identities a lot of the time, because people in in I'm just going to shorten it to DID, because that's the acronym. DID systems, like they usually have different identities. Some of us identify with like, being like, there's some lesbians in this system. There are trans men in this system. And it's difficult to explain, basically, like, you could have an identity that the body is not. For example, we are like a trans man collectively, but there are some people in our system that are considered cis male due to the fact that they're just in headspace as just cis men. It is really strange and almost odd to navigate, because I had to go through several identities in order to figure out which one would sort of fit everyone in here. And it may change again. So far, we have stuck with the terms gay, non binary, transmasc, intersex, polyamorous and and aroaceflux, and those are the main ones that have stuck collectively so far. There aren't very many feminine people in this system, but yeah, it's interesting to try to navigate the world and have to explain that, hey, um, hey, we're a bunch of people in one body. Um, like, people are odd about it a lot of the time because, like, you know, you don't expect someone to be like, Oh yeah, they/them isn't because, because there's because we just are gender neutral. It's because there's multiple people in here. Anyway, that's my piece on that.

music  3:41  
[Andy strumming guitar & Baylee's voice singing: "Oh let's build”]

Baylee  3:51  
Hi y'all, it's Baylee. I'm the Creative Director of kin•dom community. I’d like to talk a little bit more about kin•dom camp and how you can get involved. kin•dom camp is an opportunity for LGBTQIA+ youth ages 12 to 17 to feel safe and free to show up as their full selves. Campers will have the chance to experience traditional camp activities and recreation, plus some specialized programming to incorporate LGBTQIA+ history and culture. More information can be found on our website kindomcommunity.org/camp. If you have any questions you can't find the answers to, you can email us at kindomcamp@gmail.com.

Thanks for listening to kin•dom campfire chats. We are proud to be a safe space for these campers, and we are even more proud of them for sharing their stories. We hope you'll keep gathering around the campfire with us as we celebrate all of the stories that make us this kin•dom community.